Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are approximately 90,000 families on the social housing list. A large contributory factor to the situation was the change in Government policies in the 1980s when there was a dramatic decline in the traditional provision of Government funding to local authorities to build and provide social housing.

Instead of building social houses during the boom years, the Government started buying houses. For example, the Affordable Housing Partnership splashed out tens of millions of euro buying 500 homes at the top of the market at that time, just before the market collapsed.

Under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000, 20% of developments were set aside for social and affordable housing. However, by the provision of amendments and loopholes, the developers in many cases bought out the 20% and there was nil return to the local authorities in several of those developments. Between 2002 and 2011, only 3,757 new units became local authority housing and approximately 1,900 became the property of approved housing bodies or trusts. This means a pitiful figure of only 4% of all homes built during this period were social housing. That is the legacy in the current situation.

With the glut of houses from that era also, those with second and third houses were what one would term "small landlords". The main emphasis was on all types of rent schemes to pay these landlords. In fact, over €0.5 billion has been expended on these. That is a lot of dead money that has been paid out in various types of rent benefits.

The ghost estates should not be knocked. It is shameful to knock these. There is a need to upgrade them and put tenants into them. Also, the ban on bedsits approximately six years ago was a dreadful mistake. That is why we have many homeless at present.

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